Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/21

9 which was afterwards termed the Anglo-Saxon. But the greater part of the people then inhabiting England came no doubt originally from Gaul, and were of the nation whom Cæsar describes as calling themselves Celts. The appellation of Gauls, which he says the Romans gave them, was one of very extensive application to a great number of tribes in different parts of Europe. Though he restricts the name to comparatively narrow bounds, other ancient writers speak of the Gauls as spread over the northern parts of Italy, as well as over France and Spain, and even Germany. Cæsar not only excludes, as it would seem, the Cisalpine Gauls from his enumeration of this people, but many of the Transalpine, and also those of that part of France designated The Province, while otherwise they appear to have been considered only cognate tribes. Without seeking to distinguish the notions entertained of them by different writers, it is the purport of this argument to show that Cæsar was correct in declaring those of the centre parts of France to have been distinct from those of the south-western or Aquitani, inasmuch as the former were of the Cymric family, and the latter of the Gaelic.

Originally distinct from each other, these two nations evidently seem to have passed through Europe by different routes, the Gaels through Greece, Italy, and the southern parts of France to Spain, while the Cymry came in a more northerly direction. If such were the case, the first tribes with whom the Romans came in contact were those of the Gaelic branch, whom Cæsar probably knew by their local names rather than by any general one. When these were asked respecting their neighbours and themselves, they would probably then, as their descendants now, return an answer which to Roman ears might be the cause of the confusion. In Gaelic the word Gall signifies a foreigner or people generally, and if used by them respecting their neighbours, the inhabitants of mid-France, the Romans would take it as Galli; but applied to themselves, they would probably then, as now, use a word of almost the same sound to strangers, Gaël, or as they please to spell it, Gaoidhiol. Thus the designation might easily be confounded by the Greek or Roman writers, who would therefore call them all alike Gauls, though the Cymry would be ignorant of the appellation applied to them. In the same way respecting the term Celtic, which neither the Cymric nor Gaelic people acknowledge; the latter, speaking of the country of either the one or the other, would probably use the word "teach," habitation, thus Galteach or